Australian Muscle Car

luke west

All creatures great and small. That’s the phrase that rattles around in my head when piecing together the My Muscle Car section each issue. I never cease to be amazed by the mind-boggling variety of makes and models in the garages, carports and yards of our magazine’s readers.My Muscle Car is our readers’ ride section, dating back to AMC’s earliest issues. Yet, it’s only since we hit the century mark that it expanded into the multi-page format you see today, in this issue from page 72. It’s quickly become a staff favourite and a section that’s drawing much comment in correspondence received.Here’s an example, commenting on last issue’s line-up: “Have to say the My Muscle Car section is really becoming a fascinating spot to visit. Loved the stories on…

the ho crusade

The closest thing we’re ever going to get to a reborn Ford Falcon GT-HO is about to go on-sale.No, Ford’s Campbellfield assembly line hasn’t cranked into production again – how cool would that be! – but the desire, groundwork and plans for a reborn version of Australia’s greatest muscle car have been brought to fruition and are being offered in a new performance upgrade.Dubbed Holy Grail – as in HOly Grail, geddit – it pumps the power and torque of the Miami supercharged V8 to an earth-rocking 483kW @ 6800rpm and 753Nm at 4500-5200rpm. A GT-F fitted with the new upgrade will be unveiled at the All Ford Day at Geelong on February 17.Now just to put those performance figures in perspective, the last Ford Performance Vehicles (FPV) model,…

shelby right

Ford took the wraps off the 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 at the 2019 Detroit Motor Show to reveal what it describes as the fastest-accelerating factory Mustang ever built, with the most powerful V8 engine ever offered by Ford in a road car.The numbers are compelling. The supercharged 5.2-litre V8 (a development of the GT350 engine but without the flat-plane crankshaft) has, Ford claims, “more than 700 horsepower” (522kW). Coincidentally or otherwise, that figure is exactly twice as much power as that of the original Ford Mustang GT500 from 1967.With that sort of grunt, performance is in the supercar territory. Ford claims the Shelby GT500 is capable of 0-100km/h in the mid three-second bracket, and runs the standing 400 metres in under 11 seconds.A key contributor to the car’s…

more mustang limited editions

Ford is set to unleash a series of limited edition Mustangs as part of the marketing program related to the factory-backed Supercars Championship Mustang racing program that kicks off on the streets of Adelaide on the first weekend in March. Spurred on by the sell-out success of 2018’s Bullitt, Ford has plans for a variety of short-run special edition Mustangs that are expected to cover the gamut from cosmetic add-ons to higher performance. While some of the Mustang limited editions will come from overseas – as per Bullitt – some will be local-only versions, adding to their exclusivity. Stand by for more news as the year rolls on. Anyone got suggestions? How about an Allan Moffat Coca-Cola special edition to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the original? Or a…

market down

For the first time in four years Australians didn’t buy a record number of new vehicles in 2018. In fact, as credit got tighter in the second half of the year, sales took on an increasingly average look with December off 14.9 per cent compared to 12 months prior. Toyota dominated the sales chart overall ahead of Mazda and Hyundai. Toyota also had the biggest selling vehicles, the HiLux ute, which led the Ford Ranger. The Toyota Corolla completed the rostrum. Holden’s first year as an importer was disastrous, dropping a whopping 32 per cent compared to 2017. Clearly, the end of local Commodore accounted for much of the sales collapse. By way of comparison, Holden sold over 95,000 Commodores in the 1998 calendar year, while in 2018 it…

cartoons

Dark Oz is the name of a new Australian publisher producing a unique line of comic books with a strong retro feel, influenced by the eighties ‘Ozploitation’ movies genre – think Mad Max and Razorback – and from time-to-time featuring Australian muscle cars.Dark Oz’s first comic book, issue #1 of the horror anthology DECAY, featured a yellow VJ Valiant hardtop on the front cover. The Zombie Hunter, as the car is known, has appeared in several of the 24 issues published since and has now also crossed over to the sister comic Retro Sci-Fi Tales. Now that’s a contradictory title! The rough-cut car is identified by its numberplate CTHULHU (pronounced k-thoolew). You’ll either know what Cthulhu is or not. AMC’s staffers were in the latter category, but we…